


He found me?

by skymirchant



Category: Captain America, Marvel
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 02:44:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6266398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skymirchant/pseuds/skymirchant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short au where Bucky, after the events of The Winter Soldier, ran away into hiding, only to be found by Steve, recieving a casette tape. <br/>Again, might add more. Not sure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He found me?

A package? He hadn't ordered anything, he hadn't even settled down into this place. Apartments were hard to come by, he didn't exactly have a lot of income, nor even a paper trail for people to follow. He'd only just gotten a job at a bookstore a day ago, and that paid barely more than minimum wage. His cracked, old apartment room still smelled of dust and neglect, and in part, of mold, as he'd been living there not even a week. Though, he had no spare clothes. He would have to work on that. Getting readjusted was much more difficult than he thought.   
He was up to date with weapons, and vehicles, and whatever else his missions brought him in contact with. But mailing systems, audio players, whatever this netflix channel was, laptops, these were all mysteries. Lucky for James Buchanan Barnes, he still had his walkman, and his small collection of scrounged up tapes from when he was young. They had still been in his uniform when he fell, and subsequently found them alongside his other possessions when he 'visited' the Hydra base he was kept at. Along with dogtags, boots, his uniform, and a few miscellaneous items, it had somehow (barely) survived the fall. It was more or less taped together, but it still worked well enough. In fact, Bucky felt a bit akin to the broken old walkman, likely because he felt similar to it at times. 

Bucky looked at the package, it was small, small enough that it might only contain a letter, but why the fancy packing envelope if not just a regular paper one? He grunted and opened it, surprised to find a tape inside. His eyes glanced to the return address on the envelope, but it unfortunately lacked one.   
James was suspicious, the only thing the tape said was 'listen to me.'   
He grabbed his battered tape player, popped open the case, took out the previous tape he'd picked up at a thrift store (labelled 'music through the ages') and put in this new mystery tape.   
He plugged in his headphones, that were admittedly cheap, but they weren't exactly high priority on his shopping list, and thus dollar store headphones would do.   
He heard a voice, one he recognized. He almost felt sick hearing it, his gut twisting im surprise, but his heart beating quicker with hope. 

"Bucky, if this made it to you, and you're hearing this, it's me. Steve. You might not remember me yet, but I'm your best friend.  
I don't know how you're faring in this world, but I made this for you, if anything just so you could hear the songs that reminded me of you. I'll find you, James, one day. I hope you find this tape. Flip it over, it has songs on the other side for you." 

He felt choked, hearing that voice again. He had most of his memories back, he knew Steve, and it was strange to hear such a familiar voice call him 'James.' He opened the cassette player and flipped over the tape, hitting play and listening to the whirr and bit of silence before a song played. New music seemed strange, but he could adapt. He liked it.   
He heard violin, a sound he was familiar with, a sound he enjoyed. Then the quiet sounds of piano, as if played in a theatre with too much echo.   
"You taught me the courage of stars, before you left. How life carries on, endlessly...   
Even after death." 

He ripped the headphones out, smashed the 'stop' button and threw the cassette player against the wall, backing up until he tripped backwards onto the creaky old bed, confused, dazed and in a bit of shock. That was from Steve? Was that what he thought after he was kidnapped? Or even before? 

He calmed himself down and looked at the cracked cassette player. He sighed, a bit disappointed in himself for becoming so quick to act on his emotions. Lately, they had been confusing, however, and he found it difficult to control them. He felt as though he was either faced with a blank sheet of paper, or he had to hold his ground against a tsunami wave of colour, and there really wasn't a lot in between.   
He apologized to the innocent messenger of a cassette player that now had another bit of plastic missing, and picked it up, placing it on his bedside. He muttered a small apology to his faithful friend and picked up the envelope again. How did Steve find him?   
His mind wandered, until he came to the idea that he was being watched. His immediate reaction was to draw the blinds and check the walls for anything unusual. Tapping on the walls revealed no exception to the hollowness, and he found no evidence of anything else. He paid for this apartment with cash, and he’d been seriously careful concealing his identity.


End file.
